The New Republic's Editor Brings a Fresh Perspective

By DEIRDRE CARMODY,

Published: November 11, 1991

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6—
In its 77 years, The New Republic has been tagged with many labels, from Stalinist to neo-conservative.

Now, the appointment of a 28-year-old British editor, who describes his views as "post ideological," and a renewed business partnership with its longtime conservative political adversary, The National Review, are expected to reposition the feisty little journal of opinion once more.

"This is a way of moving the magazine and making it more accessible to young people," said Martin Peretz, editor in chief and chairman, in explaining his selection of Andrew Sullivan as editor last month.

"Andrew is an immensely smart, lively and complicated person," Mr. Peretz said. "He's Catholic, working class, British, Tory, gay -- and not at all doctrinal."

Dressed in a blue denim shirt and jeans, Mr. Sullivan looked younger than his age as he discussed his plans. He said he was trying to put the weekly journal more in touch with the news and pointed proudly to the Nov. 18 issue with its cover, "What October Surprise?" noting that it came out three days before Newsweek's "October Surprise" cover.

Mr. Sullivan wants to break down what he calls the Berlin wall between the front of the magazine, which deals with current affairs, and the back, which deals with culture. "I want the front to be involved in serious discussion of pop culture, high culture and mass culture," he said.

Mr. Sullivan brings a new perspective to The New Republic. Those who know him say this gives him a real affinity with outsiders and none of the tendency to side with authority that is found in some conservatives.

Mr. Sullivan's appointment comes as The New Republic faces economic challenges as well as editorial ones.

Like many other journals of opinion, The New Republic depends considerably on the largesse of its owner to stay alive. But the continuing move toward the center by the once liberal magazine has helped it with advertisers who have been reluctant to endorse a particular point of view.

Still, like most other magazines, The New Republic is confronted with the industrywide advertising recession. So far this year, its advertising pages are down 1.37 percent, according to Media Industry Newsletter, a trade publication. In addition, The New Republic's paid circulation is down 3.5 percent, to 94,000.

With advertising making up only 25 percent of the magazine, "we operate pretty close to break even and sometimes in profit," said Jeffrey Dearth, the magazine's president. Interest in a 'Trendy' Editor

Mr. Dearth said Mr. Sullivan's appointment should help the magazine financially as well as editorially. He said advertisers were becoming more interested in the magazine "because Andrew is seen as more 'trendy,' and we expect to attract categories like fashion, high-priced consumer goods and records."

Facing these advertising pressures, The New Republic has renewed its joint venture with The National Review to sell advertising. The two magazines originally teamed up 15 years ago, and they eventually formed a sales operation that included nine small opinion magazines. But last summer, The New Republic and The National Review pulled out of the group.

The sales venture with The National Review was one of the moves made by Mr. Peretz after he bought The New Republic in 1974. More noticeable to most readers though, has been the magazine's drift toward the center, which left The Nation as the leading liberal weekly.

The changes under Mr. Sullivan's direction are already evident. In its Nov. 11 issue, for instance, the magazine ran a long, detailed cover piece entitled "The Real Face of Rap," reporting that while rap music is still proportionally more popular among blacks, its primary audience is male, white and lives in the suburbs. Next week's scheduled cover article is a deeply affecting piece by John Updike about the memoirs of his fellow-WASP novelist, John Cheever.

In another scheduled piece, Camille Paglia, the anti-feminist author of "Sexual Personae," will review the report on sexuality that the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly rejected in June. The report favored a new ethic for sexual activity based on the personal qualities of a relationship, regardless of the marital status or sex of a couple.

"Because esthetic considerations are as important to him as ideological ones, he is not going to run the magazine in a rigid or ideologically predictable manner," said Hendrik Hertzberg, Mr. Sullivan's predecessor, who had been editor since September 1989 and before that from 981 to 1985.

Mr. Sullivan, who started as a summer intern at The New Republic in 1986, became editor after Mr. Hertzberg stepped down to write a book on the Constitution. Mr. Hertzberg is now a senior editor.

Although Mr. Sullivan was raised in Britain, he said he was less daunted than he might be at the prospect of being editor of an American magazine -- "a really American magazine," as he put it -- because he is such an American enthusiast.

"England still drives me crazy -- the negative views, the snobbery," he said. "When I came to America, it suddenly seemed to me that there was much more oxygen in the air."

Mr. Sullivan believes his Catholicism and homosexuality will add a new perspective to the magazine.

"I take my religious beliefs seriously; they define a part of my life and truest convictions," he said. "I'd like us to be the best magazine writing on religion in the country." Powerful and Moving Pieces

In the last year, Mr. Sullivan has written some powerful and moving pieces about gay men, including a cover story entitled "Gay Life, Gay Death" in the Dec. 17, 1990, issue about the increasing rift between gays who have tested HIV-positive and those who are HIV-negative.

His "Sleeping With the Enemy" column in the Sept. 9 issue was a scathing denunciation of "outing," the naming of suspected homosexuals who have not publicly acknowledged their sexual orientation.

"I think we have never dealt candidly with gay issues in the past, and now I think we are way ahead of the curve of mainstream magazines," Mr. Sullivan said.

On the whole, he said he hoped to make the magazine as "lively, as mixed and as brave as possible."

"I still feel I have to prove a lot," he said. "I'm kind of a gutsy choice and when you are that, complacency is not the first thing that grips the mind."

Photo: Andrew Sullivan, the new editor of The New Republic, wants to put the opinion magazine more in touch with the news and cultural trends. (Jose R. Lopez/The New York Times)